From the heart for people I love

The true spell of a wedding

Photo: RKM Photography

I had the privilege of officiating my sister and brother-in-law’s wedding last weekend. It was a true family affair with my parents on hosting duty and my brother emceeing the dinner portion, and it reminded me that the way we show up in big moments has a lot to do with how we show up in smaller moments along the way, too.

It gave me a chance to do some of my favorite writing—from the heart for people I love—and what I kept coming back to was how a ceremony that’s been performed countless times in more or less the same order can be so utterly unique.

And what makes it unique has nothing to do with the words I brought to it, but that there would never be another time where they’d stand between me and the people they assembled to bear witness to their love’s promise.

That’s the true spell of a wedding. That’s what makes it a singular moment in time. That’s what gives the same old words renewed power. That’s why it’s so hopeful.

They’re not saying I know everything about you and I know everything that’s going to come, but they’re saying I know enough. We know enough.

That’s the power of those words. They’re a record of a time when our voices were full of hope and love and we didn’t know what would come next, but we knew we would do it together.